I saw her name on the side of a train
Somewhere a long time ago
Don't know who she was
But I gave my love to someone called Phoebe Snow

Like a bird on the wing I hear a voice sing
As over the prairies I roll
I'd give my life to spend on more night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow

I climbed on board through a wide open door
Just as she started to roll
And I rode so light through the long summer night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow

Like a bird on the wing I hear a voice sing
As over the prairies I roll
I'd give my life to spend on more night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow

I've spent many a night by the fire
In a circle of stone silent men
And heard the sagebrush whistle and pop
And the coffee boil up in the can

The bottoms were filled with a cool river wind
And the treetops chasing the moon
And I knew without asking to take my guitar
And play up some slow gentle tune
I played up a face I use to know
And the song was the sound of a name
I knew without looking that every man there
Was each of them thinking the same

Then I played up some hands so pale and small
With a touch just as light as the rain
And I knew without looking that every man there
Was each of 'em feeling the same

Then I played up the booze and the holes in the shoes
Of a man whose life is a cage
And all the things done to make a man run
The hard luck and failures of age
Then I stopped with a crash - we looked into the ash
Helpless with longing and rage

Now a traveling life might seem all right
A life without worry or care;
Always up and always out and always going somewhere
But I'll tell you, friend-it's not where you are
But your reason for being there

And then I awoke as the day broke
And gazed out over the plain
Thinking as how I'm better off now
Being in love with a train
Like a bird on the wing I hear a voice sing
As over the prairies I roll
I'd give my life to spend on more night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow